“That one can convince one’s opponents with printed reasons, I have not believed since the year 1764. It is not for that purpose that I have taken up my pen, but rather merely to annoy them, and to give strength and courage to those on our side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.”
G.C. Lichtenberg (1742 – 1799), courtesy of 'Deogolwulf'

Thursday, 16 February 2017

Don't cry for me, Venezuela

I hesitate to accuse many people of being the personification of rank evil but when faced with the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Ken Livingstone, Naomi Campbell, Diane Abbott, Seumas Milne and Owen Jones in the UK; Sean Penn, Oliver Stone and Michael Moore in the US, there is, quite simply, no other word for them. Lest you doubt me - you wouldn't do that, would you? - then read Jason Mitchell's piece in The Spectator this week.

He reminds us that only ten years ago all the above were singing the praises of Hugo Chavez and his wonderful, humanitarian experiment in Venezuela. That, they insisted at the time, was the truly socialist road we should all follow to a new world order. Of course, Chavez died, extremely painfully I hope, of cancer but all of their Left-wing hopes were shifted to their new hero, Nicolas Maduro. So how's that working out then?

Maduro has turned out to be an economic incompetent of the highest order. Last year imports collapsed by more than 50 per cent and the economy nosedived by 19 per cent. The budget deficit is around 20 per cent of GDP. The minimum wage is now the equivalent of £25 a month. After a Central Bank estimate that suggested that the Venezuelan economy had contracted by 19 per cent last year was leaked to the press, Maduro fired the bank’s president and replaced him with a Marxist loyalist.

[...]

At the heart of Venezuela’s economic chaos lie market distortions. Petrol is sold locally for less than one penny per litre and it receives £12 billion of state subsidies a year. The country has a complex monetary arrangement that makes use of three different exchange rates simultaneously.

This feeds rampant corruption: the president’s cronies can buy dollars from the state at ten bolivars a dollar but sell them at 3,300 bolivars a dollar on the black market. Price controls have made it unprofitable for small businesses to sell staple goods, leading to widespread shortages. Carjackings and kidnappings are now epidemic. Caracas’s murder rate is 80 times higher than London’s.

Needless to say, human rights have been trampled on and most people believe that Maduro will fix next year's election to ensure that he remains 'El jefe'! Well, we all get things wrong from time to time but given the scale of the humanitarian disaster overwhelming Venezuela, isn't it time - indeed is it not long overdue - for all those smug, stupid, wealthy and evil Lefties to admit their errors? Don't hold your breath!

ADDITIONAL

No sooner had I written the above than I clicked over to the always excellent American Thinker to read some good news from Monica Showalter. She points out that already President Trump has put away the soft-soled slippers worn by his predecessor and replaced them with steel-capped boots in his approach to the 'thugocracy' that runs Venezuela. In a highly publicised event he met personally with Liliana Tintori, the wife of a Venezuelan thrown into jail years ago on false charges.

What a hell of a change from the mealy-mouthed, don't-upset-them approach seen from the Obama and, to some extent, even George Bush White Houses. Trump not only met with Tintori, signaling that she was welcome in the White House any time she liked, he also posed for a photo with her that included Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, to show an unambiguous united front.

Not satisfied with that signal written in block capitals, 'The Donald' went one stage further:

It comes just a few days after Trump placed Chavista Vice President Tareck el-Aissami onto a Treasury Department list of actual drug dealers, something that is not done lightly, and requires the most unassailable standards of proof. The U.S. has had it for years, sitting on it, but until now refused to execute in the sanctions order. Trump got that job done, too.

Comments

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Way past time that this corrupt regime came to an end. The military is in cahoots with the regime, so Venezuela qualifies as a five banana republic. This is a hard one to handle as a lot of most? all? The generals are up to their eyeballs in drug trafficking and don't have any incentive to change the status quo.

To a liberal-not-leftist Chavez and Corbyn are indeed fools. However, if you think Trump is doing a fine job you're either completely selective in your news consumption or just as delusional as he is. A slow train wreck was to be expected, but the wreck is happening in accelerated time. There's a new scandal every 6 or 8 hours.

Trump promised we'd be winning so much we'd get tired of it. If by "we" he meant anyone who isn't a Republican or right winger, it's his one promise that's coming true.

For matters Latin America including this Maduro bastard...may he walk in front of a bullet, this is a good blog--http://babalublog.com/

If if isn't him, it's his predecessor, if not him its one of the Castros, or Daniel Ortega--a scoundrel who can dodge a half dozen bullets at once. We no sooner cleaned one out then another popped up elsewhere.

Hopefully Mr. Trump will watch our southern neighbors more closely like we did during the Cold War. It is infuriating that these "Bolivarians" show up here like Obama and the Hollywood types as well as ignorant politicians across the Western world and at the UN.

Faster than a speeding lawsuit, more wrecky than a locomotive, able to brand tall buildings in a single negotiation! Look up in the sky, it's a loon, it's a balloon, no... it's President Comrade Trump fighting the never ending battle for truth, justice, and one way or another!

Brits might not recognize the intro for the 1950's Superman TV show, but you should:

"Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman - who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a neverending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

David's tossing around the word "evil" reminded me of comic book villains, and so the lampoon. Maybe it was too esoteric, but I'm fine, thank you.

Another day, another plateful of crazy from our resident trash-talking clown. It should be quite clear by now that he is not interested in reasonable discourse. No, he is only interested in flaming from either end of his alimentary canal.

His M.O. is to make outrageous assertions about any person who is unwilling to succumb to the Leftist mania for political correctness, checking one's privilege, and other inventions of the sick Leftist worldview. In so doing, he hopes you will try to defend the target of his trash talking, thereby wasting time better spent by, for example, sticking needles in your eyes or sitting in traffic, naked, eating glass.

The dream of socialism never dies because it is never examined academically. As a new crop of young people come along all emotional and wide eyed, they refuel a movement they won't like if they ever had to actually live under it. Thus the Left is never cut off at the source.

Often misattributed to Churchill, “If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain.”

Unfortunately, there are lots of people who lack the brains to disillusion themselves of socialism by age 40. And this is the cohort that perpetuates the concept of socialism, which Churchill characterized thus: "Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy."